Informal Learning: A New Model for Making Sense of Experience

Citation

Wollard, K.K. (2009), "Informal Learning: A New Model for Making Sense of Experience", Journal of European Industrial Training, Vol. 33 No. 1, pp. 98-100. https://doi.org/10.1108/03090590910925107

Book synopsis

This is a book about learning from experiences, which are defined in the introduction as being personal and active, while varying widely due to time span and complexity. The book is based on the author's background in human resource management, his extensive research in the areas of experiential and adult learning, and more than 30 conversations with various adult colleagues. The author contends that while individuals learn quite successfully from experience, they have little awareness of their doing so.

The author sets out to help readers understand how experiential learning takes place and the mental processes involved. Chapter 2 introduces the experiential learning literature in education and psychology, beginning with Kolb's model, discussing learning styles theories, and concluding with Jarvis's learning cycle. Finding the existing literature lacking, the author proceeds in chapter 3 to introduce his model of experiential learning, consisting of 11 cloud‐shaped elements and a prism. At the centre of the model (central cloud) lies the experience itself. Five elements are identified as sources of data for experience (own observations; fellow participants observations; informed non‐participants observations; formal knowledge; own experience) and the remaining five elements constitute a range of disparate factors affecting the experience. The chapters that follow address each of the elements individually.

The elements chapters (chapters 4‐12) discuss the author's reasoning for specifying the element, give an example to clarify meanings, identify aspects of the element represented in other literature, discuss the element further, and end with “points of exploration (p. 39)” or questions to help the reader reflect upon their own experiences. Chapter four discusses expectations, which include both previous experiences and formal knowledge. Chapter five explores the emotional aspects of experiences and their often‐unexamined influences on learning. Chapter six introduces opportunity, which can be linked to both time and willingness. Chapter seven explores learning orientation, probing the effects of personality, ability, multiple intelligences and learned behaviours. Chapter eight delves into the need for memory and recall. Chapters nine and ten deal with the actual experience and how learners gather and value data using their own knowledge and senses and through the input of others who share the experience and the input of non‐participants. Chapter eleven considers how we make sense of experiences, through reflection and insight, while chapter twelve deals with how we verify the credibility of our conclusions. The final chapter suggests uses of the model for individuals, groups, mentoring relationships and counselling.

Evaluation

The author has a very personal style that permeates the book, and a great passion for the “ordinary, commonplace, experiences (p. 4)” of individuals. The model is complex with numerous elements vying for attention. Only after careful reading of the book and the explanations of the elements, individually and in relationship, does one begin to sense the need for and appropriateness of each one. The model, along with thoughtful questions and simple stories, create a compelling discussion of how we learn from experience, especially for those experiences that are unexpected or do not conform to our expectations.

This book reminded me of the early 1990s experiential learning and brain research, which advocated what, at the time, were new and powerful ways of learning: mind maps, learning styles research, thinking and memory skills (Gross, 1991). Dr Davies has brought the exuberance and complexity of experiential learning up to date, once again affirming the adult learner's endless ability to learn from one's own life.

This book offers insights that will help anyone become a more active experiential learner, but will be of particular interest to researchers and practitioners of adult and informal learning. Researchers will find opportunities to expand and test the proposed model, while practitioners should read carefully the sections on opportunity and reflection. Facilitation of informal learning has implications for workplace practices and individual development, as well as the potential to shape successful mentoring relationships.

In the author's own words

Finally, we come to the core process of learning from experience, that of making sense of as much as possible of what we have seen, heard, felt and so on. If the experience is at all complex, to arrive at this phase we have, probably, (i) had our expectations challenged, and (ii) our emotions roused sufficiently to spend time and energy in exploring the experience, (iii) taken whatever opportunities we have to dig into it, (iv) applied our own, unique learning orientation to approach it, (v) checked out or own observations, together with (vi) those of fellow participants, and (vii) informed non‐participants, perhaps consulted (viii) any source of formal knowledge that seemed applicable, and (ix) our own experience – all this to prepare ourselves for the crucial process of reflecting on the experience with a view to learning whatever lessons it has to offer. Very possibly most of this has been unconscious (p. 116, italics in original).